‘No! No, Mum,’ Mavis burst out. ‘Who said that? Has that Rita—’
‘He knocks you about,’ repeated Lily, ignoring her interruption, ‘an’ he knocks the girls about, and whatever you say, he’s going to go on doing it. Men like him always go on doing it.’
‘Mum, it wasn’t like that. Reet fell off her stool. You know what she’s like. She was fidgeting… she’s always fidgeting, you know she is. An’ she fell off and hit her face, poor little kid.’ Mavis’s eyes challenged her mother to disbelieve her and Lily looked a little less certain.
‘That’s what she said—’ began Lily.
‘Because that’s what happened, Mum. Did you see her on the way to school?’
‘Yes, they were just going in.’
‘Look, Mum, I was just leaving. I got to be at Mrs Robinson’s in twenty minutes. Walk with me to the bus, eh? I must go or I’ll be late.’ She edged her mother towards the front door, and Lily allowed herself to be eased out of the house and into the street. Mavis closed the door behind her and, taking her mother firmly by the arm, began walking towards the bus stop.
‘Sorry, Mum,’ she said, ‘but I mustn’t be late. The cleaning takes me a bit longer these days and I don’t want Mrs Robinson to turn me off. I was going to come and see you when I’d finished. Jimmy’s going to the registry office today to get the wedding sorted. You have to put your name on a list for three weeks or something… not sure quite what, but Jimmy knows and he’s going to do it in his dinnertime.’
‘You really want to marry him, Mavis?’ asked Lily, trying to walk more slowly. She wanted to talk to Mavis, to have things out with her, but knew that here in the street wasn’t the place.
‘Yes, I do,’ Mavis asserted. ‘He’ll make a great dad.’
‘Oh, Mavis, you know—’
‘Sorry, Mum, here’s my bus.’ Mavis stuck her hand out to hail the bus and scrambled aboard as soon as it stopped. She turned back, looking at her mother still standing on the pavement. ‘I’ll come in and see you tomorrow, Mum. Tell you the wedding date and that.’
The bus began to draw away, and Mavis moved inside, waving to her mother through the window.
Lily watched her go with distinct misgivings. She remained unconvinced that Rita had simply fallen off her stool. No, Jimmy Randall had something to do with it. Jimmy Randall was not good news, not good news at all.
Available now!
The Kindertransports
As the orchestrated persecution of the Jews intensified in the late 1930s, more than ten thousand unaccompanied Jewish children were brought to England from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia, between December 1938 and August 1939. Sent by parents, desperate to save them from the Nazis’ “Final Solution”, children aged from three months to seventeen years old travelled on trains that carried them across Europe and then over the sea to England. When they arrived they were fostered in families all over the country. Jewish, Methodist, Quaker, Catholic and Protestant families opened their homes to the children so brutally taken from their own families. For some no foster parents could be found and these were housed in hostels or went to boarding schools; but all had escaped the Nazi terror.
Some were lucky, and their parents managed to escape as well, so they were reunited; others found remnants of family who had survived the death camps after the war, but most of them never saw, again, the parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters they had left behind.
The strength of the love and courage of the parents who sent their children away is hard to imagine… their hearts were broken, but their children were saved.
About The Runaway Family
Germany 1937: Fear and betrayal stalk the streets. People disappear. Persecution of the Jews has become a national pastime.
When Ruth Friedman’s husband is arrested by the SS, she is left to fend for herself and her four children. She alone stands as their shield against the Nazis. But where can she go? Where will her family be safe?
Ruth must overcome the indifference, hatred and cruelty that surrounds her as she and her family race to escape the advancing Nazi army’s final solution…
Reviews
THE LOST SOLDIER
(previously published as The Ashgrove)
“A powerful and moving account of the brutality of war itself.”
Tony Benn
“This book bears powerful witness to a grave injustice.”
Martin Bell
“Diney Costeloe has tackled an important subject. We should never forget this terrible injustice.”
John Humphrys
THE SISTERS OF ST. CROIX
(previously published as Death’s Dark Vale)
“A treat from the very first page. I could not put it down!”
Historical Novel Society
“A compelling tale beautifully written.”
George Baker
“A vivid insight into the work of the French Resistance under the German occupation.”
Betty Rowlands
About Diney Costeloe
DINEY COSTELOE published several successful sagas in the 1980s, before family life intervened. She lives in Somerset.
Visit her website: dineycosteloe.co.uk
Or follow her on Twitter: @Dineycost
Also by Diney Costeloe
The Throwaway Children
Gritty, heartrending and unputdownable – the story of two sisters sent first to an English, then an Australian orphanage in the aftermath of World War 2.
Rita and Rosie Stevens are only nine and five years old when their widowed mother marries a violent bully called Jimmy Randall and has a baby boy by him. Under pressure from her new husband, she is persuaded to send the girls to an orphanage – not knowing that the papers she has signed will entitle them to do what they like with the children.
And it is not long before the powers that be decide to send a consignment of orphans to their sister institution in Australia. Among them – without their family’s consent or knowledge – are Rita and Rosie, the throwaway children.
The Throwaway Children is available here.
The Lost Soldier
In 1921, eight ash trees were planted in the Dorset village of Charlton Ambrose as a timeless memorial to the men killed in World War One. Overnight a ninth appeared, marked only as for’the unknown soldier’.
But now the village’s ashgrove is under threat from developers.
Rachel Elliot, a local reporter, sets out to save the memorial and solve the mystery of the ninth tree. In so doing, she uncovers the story of Tom Carter and Molly Day: two young people thrown together by the war, their love for each other, their fears for the present and their hopes for the future. Embroiled in events beyond their control, Tom and Molly have to face up to the harsh realities of the continuing war, the injustices it allows and the sacrifices it demands.
The Lost Soldier is available here.
The Sisters of St. Croix
A gripping story of love, death and danger in Nazi Occupied France.
When Adelaide Anson-Gravetty finds out her father is not the man who raised her, she is both shocked and intrigued. Determined to find out more about her new family, she travels to the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in France to meet her aunt, the Reverend Mother.
But when France falls to the German army, Adelaide and the nuns are soon in the thick of a war that threatens both their beliefs and their lives. Collaborating with the resistance, sheltering Jewish orphans, defying the rulings of Vichy France: these are dangerous activities in dangerous times.
These courageous women must give all they’ve got in order to protect the innocent from the evil menace of the Nazi war machine.
The Sisters of St. Croix is available here.
A Letter from the Publisher
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The story starts here.
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Castlehaven Books
This eBook edition first published in the UK in 2015 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Diney Costeloe, 2009
Jacket Design © KS Agency
Author Photo © Helen Faubel
The moral right of Diney Costeloe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781784972622
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.headofzeus.com
Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Preface
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Preview
The Kindertransports
About The Runaway Family
Reviews
About Diney Costeloe
Also by Diney Costeloe
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright
The Runaway Family Page 35